Writing Blog Entry 15 – Leading Thinkers, Selected Interviews

The interview with Henry Jenkins was centered around the way that the ideas for media-centered learning was being propagated around the world. Having helped write one of the most popular papers on the subject himself, Jenkins says that he is pleased and surprised by how much the Digital Media Learning (DML) group has grown since then, especially in America. However, he does note that MacArthur, the people (or person?) sort of spearheading this initiative, has not been doing a good job at both spreading the word outside of the US, as well as listening to input from other countries that have tried this themselves.

The interview with John Palfrey revolved around challenging students through digital learning while keeping them safe from predators, hackers, etc. He says that some of the early experiments he seen in providing a digital learning environment are promising, but there’s also been too little overall change going on, and no one has tried to make more than a splash in a couple of small places. Bullying was also mentioned, to which Mr. Palfrey said that the problem of bullying both online and offline stems from an issue in the educational system, and that schools need to teach their kids how to be braver than they are (meaning, take calculated risks for their own good or the good of others).

The interview with Eszter Hargittai was focused on the digital divide in today’s world, as opposed to when digital technology first became popular. Eszther says that there is a distinct social inequality when it comes to computer skills. Seemingly, those who are lower class are less capable of using digital devices than people above them, and not just because they don’t have access to them or don’t use them often. This means that the more important democratic events happen digitally, in a place where everyone is meant to weigh in, the voice of the lower class is not heard as well as it should be.